The Unknown: 49ers have figure out how to defend Christian McCaffrey

Football coaches obsess over game film. It’s the key to preparing for an upcoming opponent. They pour over countless hours of video before relaying the lessons learned to their players to help prepare for Sundays.

And that’s what makes Week 1 unique. Coaches throughout the NFL can only predict how new players will be incorporated because there’s no sample to draw from. The preseason film offers the skeleton, while the regular season tape fills in the muscles and nerves of another team’s playbook.

The 49ers open the regular season Sunday against an unknown in do-it-all rookie running back Christian McCaffrey, who ran with supreme elusiveness and underrated power at Stanford before the Panthers tapped him with the eighth-overall pick in the recent NFL draft.

McCaffrey’s versatility might be the most compromising element facing San Francisco’s new look 4-3 defense, which makes its regular season debut against Carolina.

“He can do everything,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “So it’s just how do you treat him? He’s a good running back. He can run outside. He can run inside. He’s good at screens. He’s good at routes out of the backfield. You can motion him out wide and use him as a wide receiver. He’s developed in those routes too. He causes a lot of issues in some man-to-man situations.

“You just don’t know what you’re going to get. When a guy can be everywhere and he’s versatile it limits what a defense can do, some of the situations that he can put you in.”

The Cardinal star over the last two seasons ran for 3,622 yards and 21 touchdowns, adding 82 receptions for 955 yards and eight scores. His 202-pound frame led to questions about his viability between the tackles in the NFL, but he starred in a power running scheme in college that relied on his legs to chew clock and salt away victories.

McCaffrey was considered a fringe first-round prospect before talent evaluators had a better idea of his athleticism. He 6.57 seconds in the three-cone drill came in the 97th percentile among running backs, meaning his change-of-direction skills and quickness will be awfully tough for defenders to handle. McCaffrey would be hard for a cornerback to match up with, let alone 240-pound linebackers.

San Francisco’s unofficial game plan, which doesn’t take an X’ and O’s acumen to decipher, is to make sure McCaffrey feels physicality in a way he couldn’t in college.

“Just keep nailing him,” 49ers rookie safety Lorenzo Jerome said. “Those guys built with a lot of juice, (we) just got to keep hitting him and keep hitting him because he’s not going to quit at all. Just got to stay on him and hopefully he’ll fold or hopefully, at the end result, we win the game.”

The Panthers wanted to add McCaffrey’s wrinkle to their offense to absorb some of the punishment that was going to quarterback Cam Newton, who had surgery in March to repair a partially torn rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder.

McCaffrey’s addition gives Carolina a weapon in short-yardage situations that can ease Newton’s burden as the 28-year-old enters the advanced stage of his career. Last year was the first time Newton had fewer than 100 rushing attempts. The Panthers also added Ohio State’s speedster Curtis Samuel in the draft’s second round, who offers a similar dynamic as a slot receiver and change-of-pace option out of the backfield.

“There’s some things that we’re obviously looking at doing, trying to take the pressure off (Newton),” coach Ron Rivera said in a conference call. “Going out and doing the things that we did in the draft bodes very well for us so far. I like what we’ve seen in training camp, we’ve liked what we’ve seen in the preseason games. Now it’s an opportunity to find out if it’s really what we’re hoping it to be.”

What Rivera’s hoping for is likely an attack that can move the chains by creating match up problems. That means the 49ers’ new 4-3 defensive front is going to get stressed by elusive players right away.

Key to the front-seven’s success is linebacker Reuben Foster, who will be making his NFL debut along with McCaffrey. Foster might end up leading San Francisco’s linebackers in snaps played. He stayed on the field during obvious throwing downs while veteran NaVorro Bowman went to the sideline in the third preseason game against the Vikings.

Taking Bowman’s spot was strong safety Jaquiski Tartt, who might better match up with McCaffrey and Samuel in the middle of the field. There are times when Bowman’s change-of-direction skills look hampered by the knee and Achilles injuries that caused him to all of 2014 and the final 12 games of last year.

Foster’s the one with fresh legs, which have been apparent in exhibition games to Rivera, who played linebacker for the Bears from 1984 to 1992.

“You put the tape on, you see why he was a No. 1 pick,” Rivera said. “This is the kind of guy that runs around, gets to the football and makes plays. I really like who he is. I liked him coming out. Just from my personal experience and just the way I look at things, I think he’s got a chance to be a really good player for them and be there for a long time.”

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